Japan 2013

On the 16th of November 2013, my class went on a 6 day trip to Japan. The trip was the initiative of our university, UTM under the Global Outreach Programme (GOP) where students are required to find their own funding and to plan their own activities. There were 14 students in the group along with a Lecturer.

Personally, this is the second time I've been to Japan. The first time I went to the 'Land of the Rising Sun' was when I was in form 1 under a Japanese Cultural Exchange Programme about ten years back.

Back to GOP which was first proposed by a number of people in my course since the first year of our studies in UTM. Several countries to visit were proposed back then namely Korea, China, Australia even Indonesia.

After several challenges were faced which forced the GOP to be postponed for a number of times such as the suspension of the RM1000 fund per student by UTM in 2011/2012 session and the ban from going to certain countries which are categorized as "unproductive" for the automotive undergrads by the faculty's administrators such as China, we've then decided to plan a trip to Japan one year ahead from it's proposed date. The team was lead by Arisy and there were four persons taking charge of specific portfolios.

Fast forward one year, the team is ready to depart for Japan on that glorious afternoon. (I don't want to bore you guys with the long story of how we got our funds and stuff..). The team was ready and excited to embark on the journey to Japan as they were smiling from ear to ear.

The journey took us 7 hours from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Haneda International Airport. We were welcomed by the chilly air and mild fog as soon as we step down from the Airbus. The beeping sound of pushback tractor in the silent cool night sky made me reflect that I am here in Japan,thousands miles away from my homeland and that realization was quite peculiar for a brief moment.

At the immigration exit gate, the familiar sights of Japanese bowing to each other reminds me of how formal the Japanese people are and it made me reminiscent of the memories I had in 2004. The continuous flat voice of the cashiers and storekeeper at the Airport's 7-Eleven made me grin a little bit as it was a little bit awkward for a person who is accustomed by the soulless electronic welcome chimes at my local 7-Eleven outlets. 

The foodstuff were relatively expensive to Malaysia & most of the products there are advertised using cute 'anime' characters since anime culture is very influential on almost all the age groups in Japan. We stayed the night at the airport sleeping on benches and marked our 'territory' by placing our backpack and luggages nearby. 

I realized that the use of automatic bidets are more common in public places in 2013 than in 2004 where I was made to understand that they are usually placed in private homes. The experience of using automatic bidets is not fun at all as I felt like I was being harassed by a robot and  the water temperature was either too hot or too cold as I cannot read the Kanji writing on the buttons. The complicated buttons on the toilet made feel like I was flying a space ship or something. But you know what, you got to keep the downstairs clean all the time every time (Camne nak solat kalau kotor..).

The journey to our hotel started the next day , where we took the JR Line and used the newly bought PASMO card (A rechargeable public transport smart card)  where one of our trips would cost 300 to 500 yen. The trains were absolutely spotless, I once saw the train operator would go to each of the cars to check & pick up all the "microscopic" sized rubbish laying around (The rubbish was really really small). It then came to my mind and wonder how awesome and spotless my country would be if everyone back home would have this kind of mindset.

We stayed at New Koyo Hotel and Hotel Palace Japan near Minamisenju Station. The hotel staffs were very friendly and helped us a lot with the directions and what not. They had all the necessities such as lounge, hot water, laundry service etc. everything, really. The hotels should rather be called hostel in my opinion because the toilets are shared.

 

One of the most memorable places that we visited would be Ueno Park in my opinion just because of the tranquil atmosphere and the glimpse of the locals spending their free time made Ueno Park one of the best attraction in Tokyo. The people praying at the local shrine, streets artists showing their skills, street vendors selling all sorts of items surrounded by the sounds of chirping birds and local's soft mumbles made the place so serene and calming.

To be continued..